The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has assured that he is willing to hand over two North Korean soldiers captured by kyiv in exchange for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war held captive in Russia. But the future of these two men, wounded and prisoners in a Ukrainian hospital where they have been interrogated, remains unclear.
“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options,” Zelensky said after South Korea’s intelligence services confirmed that Ukraine had captured the two soldiers, members of a force composed of about 11,000 North Koreans according to the estimates. “This opportunity is especially aimed at those who express their desire to bring peace closer by making the truth about this war known in Korean.”
A video that accompanied Zelensky’s message shows interviews with the two soldiers. One of them expresses his willingness to return to North Korea. The other says at first that he wants to stay in Ukraine and then adds that he would return home “if necessary.” Speaking to a Ukrainian government employee with the help of an interpreter, one of the men says he had no knowledge that he was going to fight in the war against Ukraine and that his commanders had told him it was “just training.”
According to information released this Monday by South Korean deputy Lee Seong-kweun, some 300 North Korean soldiers have died since their deployment at the end of 2024, and another 2,700 have been injured. “The deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia has apparently been expanded to include the Kursk region, and estimates suggest that casualties among North Korean forces have exceeded 3,000,” Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a briefing. spy agency press.
Much will depend on what the men have privately told their Ukrainian captors. Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, has not publicly acknowledged that his soldiers are fighting alongside Russia under the mutual defense agreement signed in June with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.
The South Korean Government opted for caution on Monday. According to Unification Ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam, the fate of the North Korean prisoners of war will be decided in accordance with “international law and other legal considerations, as well as consultations with related countries.”
“In accordance with the values of our Constitution, North Korean soldiers are considered our fellow citizens, so the most important thing is the wish of the captured North Korean soldiers; if you want to desert [a Corea del Sur]the National Intelligence Service of South Korea will make inquiries to Russia and Ukraine,” said MP Lee Seong-kweun about the position of the South Korean spy service.
In Seoul, news of the North Koreans captured by Ukraine has sparked speculation that they may join the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1953 war between the two countries. The circumstances of their capture are unprecedented (in the middle of a conflict in a third country) but in theory they have the same rights as any North Korean who wishes to defect to South Korea.
The risks of returning
According to the Constitution of South Korea, “the territory of the Republic of Korea consists of the Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands,” so all North Koreans are considered citizens. Seoul has never officially recognized North Korea as a sovereign state, but considers it a territory subject to an illegitimate regime. For South Korea, that means it has a legal obligation to protect citizens living north of the demilitarized zone and to accept them when they defect, even if they are soldiers.
The return to North Korea of two soldiers whose faces have gone around the world, after participating in a war in which the regime does not recognize their direct participation, could put them and their families in danger, with the authorities trying to guarantee his silence. They could also be questioned for having apparently disobeyed the order to immolate themselves to avoid capture. “Instruction notes found on deceased soldiers indicate that North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide or self-detonate before being captured,” Lee said.
Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, who works in Seoul as a legal analyst for the NGO Transitional Justice Working Group, believes that Moscow and Pyongyang’s “refusal to officially recognize that there are North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia makes it difficult for North Korea to even “Claim the two captured soldiers as your own.” “At the same time, Russia could claim them as its own and hand them over to North Korea after exchanging them for Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he says.
Zelensky has other options if he wants to avoid condemning the two men to imprisonment, torture or even death if they return to their country. “Repatriating North Korean soldiers against their own will, despite the known risk that a totalitarian dictatorship will punish them as ‘traitors’, goes against the humanitarian principle, as well as the claim made by Ukraine that it fights in defense of freedom and democracy,” says Shin. “The international community must call on Ukraine to guarantee that North Korean soldiers will not be repatriated against their will.”
Seoul stands to gain a lot by hosting the soldiers for information they might have about North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine war. The transformation of two elite soldiers in the service of the Kim dynasty into citizens of a free and democratic country would also represent an important propaganda coup.
Unlike other North Korean defectors who have been planning their escape for a long time, it is unlikely that these two demoralized, young soldiers ever considered living among their “enemies” south of the border. But starting a new life in South Korea may now be his best chance for survival.
Translation by Francisco de Zárate.
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